Who’s Hosting the Tea Party?

Big Oil funds tax rallies and global warming deniers

It’s tax
time again, which means that anti-tax protesters will gather at the state
Capitol and denounce government spending.

But tax
season 2010 will have one new element: the appearance of the Tea Party Express
II, a bus-load of anti-government protesters crisscrossing the country to
spread their message.

The Tea
Party Express famously began its tour in Searchlight, Nev., where FOX News pundit Sarah Palin egged
on the crowd in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hometown.

As we go to
press, the Tea Party Express is planning a stop at State Fair Park on
Wednesday, April 7, sponsored by Our Country Deserves Better Political Action
Committee (PAC) and the corporate-financed Wisconsin chapter of Americans for
Prosperity (AFP). The bus will also visit rallies in Madison, Eau Claire and
Green Bay before heading toward Washington, D.C., on April 15. The state
chapter of AFP will hold a tax day tea party on the Capitol steps, as usual, to
denounce government spending.

What’s
It All About?

While the
national media have highlighted Sarah Palin’s star turn at Tea Party rallies
and corporate links to the events, Mark Block, the director of the Wisconsin
chapter of Americans for Prosperity, said the Tea Party movement is a
leader-less grassroots group made up of average citizens who want to get
involved in politics.

“The tea
party movement is an outgrowth of the government moving too fast, too quick,
both at the state and national levels,” Block told the Shepherd.

But
AFP-Wisconsin was launched in 2007, long before anyone had heard of massive
bank bailouts or “ObamaCare” or wacky conspiracy theories about a foreign-born
socialist president.

Back then,
AFP-Wisconsin was advocating for a taxpayers’ bill of rights, which would have
severely limited the state’s ability to raise taxes to pay for core services
such as public education and law enforcement, as well as inevitable budgetary
increases—for energy or health care costs, for example.

Since
President Obama’s election, AFP-Wisconsin has held a number of anti-tax
rallies, where politicians such as Congressman Paul Ryan, gubernatorial
candidate Scott Walker, multimillionaire U.S. Senate candidate Terrence Wall
and conservative radio talkers show up to denounce government spending (usually
while standing on publicly owned land).

But Block
said the number of tea party attendees and members proves that the movement is
grassroots, “not Astroturf,” or the creation of corporate PR experts and
lobbyists who are manipulating voters to help them stymie reform.

“The more
citizens that get involved in the political process, the better,” Block said.

Deep
Pockets and Denial

But is AFP
truly a grassroots phenomenon?

While many
local rally-goers will no doubt be sincerely concerned about government
spending and taxes, both of the event’s organizers are well-funded national
groups with impressive connections throughout the conservative movement.

Our Country
Deserves Better has organized campaigns against health care reform and in
support of new Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. The PAC spent $347,670 on ads
supporting Brown’s recent candidacy.

But that’s
chump change compared to what Americans for Prosperity has spent on its PR
campaigns.

AFP is funded
by the owners of the second largest privately held corporation in the
country—the Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries Inc., an oil conglomerate with
business interests throughout North America, including Wisconsin.

In addition
to being an astute businessman, Koch Industries’ founder, Fred Koch, also held
strong political beliefs. In fact, Fred was a founding member of the radically
conservative John Birch Society in the 1950s. The group, although less
prominent than in its 1960s heyday, is headquartered in Appleton, Wis., and
remains a strong supporter of limited government and Christian principles.

Two of
Fred’s four sons, Charles and David, have expanded their father’s business
empire—for example, the company bought Georgia-Pacific Corp. for $13 billion in
2005, and the Lycra and Stainmaster brands from DuPont Corp. for $4.2 billion
in 2004.

In 2008, the
company’s annual sales totaled $100 billion.

Charles and
David are each worth $16 billion—wealthier than the founders of Google ($15.3
billion each) and financier George Soros ($13 billion), but not as rich as New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($17.5 billion) or Bill Gates ($50 billion),
currently the richest man in America.

That’s why
tea party critics like Scot Ross, executive director of the progressive
watchdog group One Wisconsin Now, said AFP’s real aim is to make the rich
richer and the middle class and low-income workers even worse off than they are
now.

“Americans
for Prosperity is a corporate-funded front group that is trying to extract as much
of our public dollars as they can and then put it in the hands of the
corporations that fund it,” Ross said. “They’re about reducing protections that
keep our air fit to breathe and our water fit to drink and our food fit to
eat.”

But
AFP-Wisconsin’s Block says that the state chapter receives little financial
support from the national organization—just administrative, legal and marketing
help—while his salary and other expenses are paid for by locally raised funds.

“I have
never once been told that we needed to take a position because of what the Koch
family wanted,” Block said.

Climate
Change Denial

Yet AFP’s
advocacy and the Koch family’s business interests dovetail nicely. In fact, the
Big Oil-backed AFP is behind much of the climate change-denying spin that
permeates the media.

According to
a just-released study by Greenpeace USA, the Koch brothers’ foundations have
spent an astounding $24.8 million between 2005 and 2008 on
global-warming-denying opposition groups, such as the Mercatus Center ($9.2
million), AFP ($5.2 million), the Heritage Foundation ($1.6 million) and the
Cato Institute ($1 million). What’s more, between 2006 and 2009, Koch
Industries, its employees and relatives spent $37.9 million on direct lobbying
on oil and energy issues.

More
visibly, AFP sponsored the $5 million Hot Air Tour to rally global warming
skeptics in advance of a vote on environmental legislation in Congress. It also
supported last year’s highly charged town hall meetings on health care reform,
a frenzy whipped up by FreedomWorks, led by former right-wing Republican
congressional leader Dick Armey, which grew out of the Koch-funded Citizens for
a Sound Economy in 2003.

“The
company’s tightknit network of lobbyists, former executives and organizations
has created a forceful stream of misinformation that Koch-funded entities
produce and disseminate,” the Greenpeace report states. “This campaign
propaganda is then replicated, repackaged and echoed many times throughout the
Koch-funded web of political front groups and think tanks.”

For example,
Greenpeace reports that at least 20 Koch-funded entities were involved in
hyping the “climate gate” story, in which the e-mails of a climate scientist at
East Anglia University were hacked into and then exposed just before the climate
summit in Copenhagen.

But despite
the Koch-backed claims that the e-mails showed that global warming was a myth
spun by biased researchers, the professor in question was cleared last week by
a British House of Commons committee investigating the matter.

“We have
found no reason in this unfortunate episode to challenge the scientific
consensus that global warming is happening and is induced by human activity,”
the report on the inquiry concluded.

Lobbying
Against the Clean Energy Jobs Bill

Closer to
home, AFP, Koch Companies Public Sector and the Wisconsin Paper Council (the
Koch-owned Georgia-Pacific is a member) are lobbying against the proposed Clean
Energy Jobs Act, which aims to reduce Wisconsin’s dependence on fossil fuels,
such as oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, while boosting
Wisconsin-generated sources of renewable energy.

Turns out
that Koch Industries owns Flint Hills Resources’ Pine Bend Refinery, south of
the Twin Cities, which refines oil from Canada’s tar sands, as well as a
pipeline throughout Wisconsin. According to a series of excellent La Crosse Tribune articles published in
March, Pine Bend produces up to 40% of Wisconsin’s transportation fuel, mostly
for the western part of the state.

But that
Canadian oil may not meet the low-carbon fuel standards included in the
proposed clean-energy legislation.

So
conservative legislators (mostly Republican, but also Sen. Jeff Plale, a
Democrat from South Milwaukee, who opposes the bill’s low-carbon standard) have
been fighting for Canadian oil instead of advocating for Wisconsin-based
renewable energy sources.

For example,
in February, state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) warned in a press release
that the “Global warming bill could shut off a major source of Wisconsin’s
energy” and that “serious thought [should] be given to legislation that could
do harm to the benefits Wisconsin receives from Canadian energy.”

Likewise,
the Koch-owned Georgia-Pacific, which has facilities scattered throughout
northern Wisconsin, is a member of the Wisconsin Paper Council, which also
opposes the bill.

AFP’s
Block—who, according to the state Government Accountability Board Web site, has
registered as a lobbyist on the bill—said that the group focuses on the
economic issues connected to global warming.

“We have
weighed in on the governor’s original Global Warming Task Force recommendations
and had urged our activists to let their legislators know that we thought it
was bad economic policy in Wisconsin,” Block said.

It always amazes me how liberals bash the TEA party movement. Could it be because you have no creativity or imagination? Or have never attended one. It truly is a grass roots movement. Does it really matter who hosts it? The majority of people attending are blue collar people who truly come from the grass roots. I'd much rather be a part of this movement than to blindly follow the President of the United States. Hanging on every word Hussein and his regime have to say. My beliefs are straightforward and I have no intention of trying to get in your pockets or stand in the way of your medical treatment!

This entitlement mentality has to stop. Work for what you need and want. Get out of my checkbook!

Global Warming, ie. climate change, .....whatever the current title is.....has been proven to be a farse! Are liberals really this blind, deaf, and stupid????

The Clean Energy Jobs bill.....too funny. People, people, people, maybe a couple hundred short term jobs will be created....all the while chasing more jobs from the state. Along with deterring any new corporations from wanting to set up shop in Wisconsin.

And just for the record: the TEA party movement is the least racist, violent, and nazi movement that you libs could ever imagine.

We are a large group of people wanting to save the America we grew up with. Our freedom is sooooooooo close to being torn out from under us. And by US I mean all of us. And guaranteed, you liberals will be the first whining and crying when you won't have enough money to buy a smart car or prius! When you are keeling over in pain while you are in line at the Doctor.

How about attending a TEA party? Peacefully that is (which will be hard for you) and see exactly what it is like! Then I'd be happy to talk some real politics with you.

Looks like Mindy and Myra have been reading their Glenn Beck/Rush Limbaugh Cliffs Notes! Calling him President Hussein? Please...how unoriginal and ignorant.

Your hateful, shrill rants are immature and ineffective. You are clearly being spoon-fed your political ideals by the Fox News Channel and haven't once paused to think for yourself about what you hear. Unfortunately, you are in the majority of right-wing Americans in terms of how they get their political MIS-information.

I don't subscribe to and then preach about a set of beliefs that are fed to me by the media, my family, friends or any political wingnuts out there. I read multiple viewpoints, analyze the arguments, and think for myself...and you should too.

And please don't tell me that you are already thinking for yourself. It is clear by the tone and context of your post that you are not, and never have.

What is most important, and so far not mentioned very much is the fact that the Tea Party movement didn't complain when Bush put us 1.4 trillion in debt. They didn't complain when the first bailout was proposed by Bush, they claim that we will be taxed to death, and yet Obama is raising taxes on only those who make over 250K. This group has around 250,000 participants, a number that is tiny when compared to others. This group would have never found a "voice" if it werent for the Fox news advertisements, and celebrity "newscasters" barnstorming the country at every major Tea Party rally.

The Tea Party rallies are small in numbers, such as the 2500 people who showed up in Madison last April. Fox news claimed that 8000 showed up. Not true. Fox news claimed that tens of thousands showed up for the health care vote, when you can see that the rally had perhaps 2000 attendees. These people will eventually be absorbed back into the republican party because they are created BY the republican media machine at Fox. The party of "Hell No" has no leader, because they don't want one. They have no platform, because they are tools, not a movement. They do what Freedomworks tells them to do. They don't know it, but they should. It's quite clear. Palin works for Fox. Fox tells her what to say, Freedomworks makes the message, Fox promotes it. Sorry Tea Party ,but you are being used.

Ignorance is so bliss when it comes to Liberals and their thinking. Go ahead and keep your heads in the sand. It's only a matter of time before you are slapped with reality!

Hmmmm.....I WAS at the TEA party last year on the lawn of the Capitol. And there really were approximately 8,000 people there. If one of you liberals were there, I guess it is really true how uneducated you truly are. Can't count very high...... Furthermore, every person attending the TEA parties is doing so because that is what we choose to do, not because we are paid by some left-wing thug.

Unoriginal and ignorant.....hardly. The president of the USA has a middle name of Hussein and because he rules what he considers his regime....I will continue to refer to him as Hussein. The last time I checked it was still a free country. I hope and pray it will stay that way.

I think for myself and will continue to do so. And being berated for it by Liberal idiots leaves me cold.

Myra, your point (if you even have one) gets lost in all of the vitriolic hate and Nazi-esque nonsense you spew with every post. You don't want to "blindly follow" the President? I agree, no one should. But you are a hypocrite, because you are blindly following Palin & Co.'s fear-mongering agenda. You simply regurgitate everything you heard during her latest PR stunt and claim to have "educated" yourself. Very weak, and it's disgusting that so many Republicans are pinning their hopes on someone who is so clueless and full of hypocrisy herself (do you even KNOW how much she is making at each "speech" she gives? Hundreds of thousands of dollars--so much for her defense of the Everyman). Conservatives everywhere should be ashamed of their party for cashing in on her hype. She won't last once the Republicans FINALLY realize the short shelf life that an ill-prepared, heavily coached figurehead like her has. Even Steve Schmidt, who was a McCain campaign leader in '08, admits that she was not a good choice and was picked in desperation. He said that after weeks of coaching on foreign and domestic policy, she remained "woefully unprepared". Sorry folks, but anyone who needs that much hands-on coaching has no business in the political spotlight. She can't even speak correctly, much less make educated arguments on important political issues. Resorting to the same old conservative buzzwords may work on certain people (ahem) but won't work on anyone with half a brain.

When I posted about this article Who is hosting the TEA party....I was hoping to get some feedback about the TEA party movement. With the exception of Mindy and the one Liberal who referred to the TEA party (inorrectly) that's all I recieved.

The rest of the posts are pure Liberal hatred. I like to use the analogy that follows: When there is infidelity in a relationship, it is the partner that is unfaithful that is always accusing the faithful partner of cheating.

Oh I see...because YOUR original post where you refer to liberals as deaf, dumb and blind was sweet and unbiased? That was how you solicit feedback? How exactly was that supposed to foster constructive debate? You started off by casting stones...what did you expect?

Anyway, thanks for the entertainment. I hope someday you gain the ability to logically support your arguments, rather than just ranting and raving.

I bet none of the looney liberals in this country who write about Tea parties have ever been to one. Well I have been to 5 and have never seen anything racist about them. Alinsky rules require lefties to accuse conservatives of doing exactly what lefties are themselves doing. We caught on......Who is John Galt?

Firstly, they are not a political party. In what state are they on the ballot as the tea party ? Which state is it in that any candidate is registered to run as a member of the tea party I don't know why the press gives undeserved credibility to a well paid, phoney public interest group, that masquerades as concerned citizens, when they are in reality group of reich-wing, corporate, radical, reactionary, ultra right , unamericans, who are carrying water for a subversive , shadow government, faction who will go to any depth to achieve their corrupt and perverse agenda. I think something like 'the legion of the looney' would be more appropriate. Can't wait for Sarah Faillins to give that rousing speech on family values. Maybe they can get disgraced, Dick Armey to speak on integrity in government. It should be quite a show . I'm sure the press will cover it for us and point out the lies and point out all the operatives.